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22 views2 pages

Tips

Uploaded by

armsvcmode
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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TIPS TO CRACK CODING INTERVIEWS

Ask relevant follow up questions


Collect enough details about the problem
Constraints & special properties often offer hints
Don’t jump to conclusions and solutions immediately
Always remember, devils are in the details
Briefly discuss brute force approach, if required
Map or break the problem into similar/smaller/known problems
Do NOT invent a new/fancy data structure or algorithm

Classify the problem as


Math
Sorting
Searching
Traversal
Recursion
Bit manipulation
Dynamic programming
Greedy approach
Divide and conquer
Backtracking
Comparator

Apply appropriate data structures (or a combination of)


Arrays
Stacks
Queues
Linked Lists
Hash Tables
Balanced BSTs
MinHeap/MaxHeap
Disjoint Set Union
Tries (Prefix/Suffix Trees)

Each data structure has its own strengths and weaknesses


Identify the “pain points” in the problem
Deploy the right (combination of) data structures for each pain point
Before implementing your algorithm
Discuss it with the interviewer
Discuss it’s time and space complexity
See if it can be improved based on above discussion
Write test cases (before code!)
Start small, test immediately

Write functions that are


Reusable
Loosely coupled
Small and do only one thing!
Avoid
Gotos
Unnecessary variables
Multiple return statements
Unnecessary/many/nested if-elses
Always
Validate input
Indent your code
Use proper names (for functions and variables)
Check return codes
Handle corner cases
Trace your code with test cases before telling the interviewer – done!
Clearing design and behavioral interviews requires genuine experience
Build as much (voluntary) stuff as possible using math, data structures and
algorithms
Have enough success and failure stories to talk about

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